


then i will keep you warm (take shelter from the storm)

by oh-same-same (shedrovemehere)



Category: Planet Earth (TV)
Genre: Character Death Fix, Fix-It, Post-Canon Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:35:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27990846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shedrovemehere/pseuds/oh-same-same
Summary: The sweeping grandeur of the series premiere of BBC's groundbreaking _Planet Earth_ ("Pole to Pole") was truly what the creators of the medium of television must have dreamed in TV's infancy: showing people anywhere in the world the very essence of our one Planet; the only Earth there will ever be—in their bedrooms, living rooms, corner stores, dive bars. Yet it, like our Earth itself, is simultaneously a perfect and precious example of humanity's capability for creation, and the towering hubris that will lead to our downfall, literally before our eyes.





	then i will keep you warm (take shelter from the storm)

Enyi tried to open her eyes as she trudged against the sandstorm, but the sand felt like it was coming from the side, it was blowing so fast; whipping around her. But even with all that sand, she'd know Mama's footsteps anywhere. All she had to do was follow; Mama always led her where it was safe. Soon she would see Mama and all the rest of them, right up ahead of her. She knew they were there. She followed their footsteps through the sand, each one feeling a little closer to home.  
  
For a brief moment, the wind died down, and she looked around her. She was surprised to find it felt familiar. In a few seconds, she remembered why: the herd had passed this place not too long ago, Enyi was sure of it. Here there were a few scrubby trees, and one of the trees had a strangely shaped branch. When they'd gone past it before, the wind had died down, just like it has now, and Mama had said "look at that branch, Enyi. Doesn't it have a strange shape to it? The way it grows almost straight up?" Enyi wouldn't have noticed it herself, but once Mama pointed it out, Enyi couldn't stop looking at it. 

"When you were born, I protected you until you could stand up. And as soon as you did, Enyi, you stuck your trunk straight up toward the sun, just as straight as that branch!" Mama had said, as the wind had picked back up again, as it was doing now. "I didn't think I could love you more than I did all those months I carried you inside me, but when I saw you stick your trunk up like that, you were so funny and strong-willed, just hours old! That was the first time—of many, many times—that I felt the joy of learning I loved you more than I thought possible." 

She knew it was the same tree. Enyi stared at the branch, sticking straight up, defiant against the swirling wind, pointing toward where the sun should be—where Enyi knew it had to be, even if she couldn't see it. Had she... how was this possible? _Was_ it possible? Was she absolutely certain that _this_ was the branch her mother had pointed out? Enyi realized with cold terror that if she was wrong about this, she'd... well, at the very least, she'd never see Mama again.

"When you put your trunk up in the air like that, I laughed to myself and thought, 'well, at least I will always be able to find my daughter,'" Mama had said. 

Enyi turned around and faced the opposite direction from the one she'd been walking for a long many moments now. She peered into the distance for a couple of breaths, and she saw nothing but twisting sand in every direction. With resolve, she resumed following Mama's footsteps—now in the _right_ direction, she was sure; this _had_ to be the right way, even if she couldn't see a thing. She couldn't move very fast, as small as she was, and she was scared, because she did not know how far she had to go, and wouldn't know for sure that she was traveling in the right direction unless she found her family.

She raised her trunk high above her head, enduring the bits of sand in her mouth, and ran as fast as she could.

She ran far, and started to lose hope that she'd made the right choice, but just as she thought she could not move another step, a line of dark mountains became slowly visible ahead of her, through the blowing sand. Moving toward her. 

Enyi knew the joy then of learning she could keep going when she thought she had failed. She straightened her trunk to where she knew the sun was, as tall as a tree. Leading the herd back to her was Mama, running several steps ahead of everyone else.  
  
"I followed your footsteps, Mama!" Enyi said, barely able to keep her feet under her in her excitement.   
  
"I followed yours too." Mama wrapped her trunk around Enyi's, which Enyi was still holding above her head.  
  
"I'm sorry you had to travel in the wrong direction to find me."

"To me, 'toward Enyi' will _always_ be the _right_ direction." 

Mama and Enyi rejoined the herd to continue toward the sun, toward water and calmer air. It was still far away, but Enyi could sense it now, and she knew they were going in the right direction. Even so, she held Mama's tail until it was time to go to sleep that night, just to be safe.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok this started out being for the lolz, hence the wrought and poignant song-lyric title, but honestly I kinda like it now. 
> 
> THERE. Now we know FOR SURE that that baby elephant turned around as soon as they stopped filming!
> 
> Also, the desert elephants live in Mali mostly, from what I could find. Mali is a French-speaking country, and—while I very much believe that if elephants WERE aware of human language, they still wouldn't know a thing about no colonizer language—similarly deal-breaking is the fact that "elephant" is just "eléfant" in French. I couldn't find translations for "elephant" in any of the other languages of Mali. So "Enyi" is (according to Google Translate) "elephant" in Igbo, which is not a language of Mali but is spoken in a region where there are sandy landscapes and small populations of elephants.


End file.
